1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure for securing a cover member to a housing such as an electrical connection box or a fuse box disposed in a vehicle and, in particular, to such cover member securing structure in which an elastic securing member capable of mounting and holding the housing and cover member can be provisionally held at an arbitrary position and the cover member can be thereby secured to the housing smoothly without being interfered by the elastic securing member.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, in the case of an electrical connection box which is arranged and used within an engine room of a car, in order to prevent water from invading into the electrical connection box, there is required a cover securing structure which can secure the electrical connection box and cover member to each other in such a manner that a sealed or watertight condition can be maintained between them.
As a conventional cover member securing structure of this type for use in an electrical connection box, for example, there is known a cover member securing structure which is disclosed in JP-A-7-39225U. In the present conventional cover member securing structure, as shown in FIG. 8, one end portion 3A of an elastic securing member 3, which is formed of metal in a band shape, is oscillatably supported on the side surface of a housing 1 and, at the same time, the other end portion of the elastic securing member 3 is formed as a securing portion 3B which can be secured to a cover member 2. Also, on the side surface of the cover member 2 to be mounted on the housing 1, there is formed an engaging stepped portion 2A with which the securing portion 3B of the elastic securing member 3 can be engaged. In actual assembly, after the cover member 2 is mounted onto the housing 1, the securing portion 3B of the elastic securing member 3, which is oscillatably supported on the side surface of the housing 1, is engaged with the engaging stepped portion 2A of the cover member 2, so that the housing 1 and cover member 2 can be secured together in a mutually sealed condition.
Also, according to the conventional cover member securing structure, in the elastic securing member 3, there is disposed an elastic tongue piece 3C cut and raised so as to project toward the side surface of the housing 1; that is, the leading end of the elastic tongue piece 3C is brought into contact with a projecting surface 1A provided on the side surface of the housing 1, thereby elastically restricting the movement of the elastic securing member 3 in the closing direction thereof. Therefore, due to the mutual contact action between the elastic tongue piece 3C of the elastic securing member 3 and the projecting surface 1A of the housing 1, the elastic securing member 3 supported on the housing 1, as shown in FIG. 8, is prevented from inclining in the closing direction. Thanks to this, when mounting the cover member 2 onto the housing 1, the elastic securing member 3 is prevented from being sandwiched between the housing 1 and cover member 2, so that the mounting operation of the cover member 2 onto the housing 1 can be executed smoothly.
Also, after the cover member 2 is mounted onto the housing 1, the elastic securing member 3, as shown by a solid line in FIG. 9, is inclined in the closing direction against the elastic force of the elastic tongue piece 3C thereof to thereby bring the securing portion 3B of the elastic securing member 3 into engagement with the engaging stepped portion 2A of the cover member 2, so that the housing 1 and cover member 2 can be secured together in a mutually sealed condition.
However, in the above-mentioned elastic securing member 3, although the oscillation of the elastic securing member 3 in the closing direction is restricted due to the action of the elastic tongue piece 3C, there is no means for restricting the oscillation of the elastic securing member 3 in the opening direction thereof. Therefore, for example, as shown in FIG. 10, there is a possibility that the elastic securing member 3 can move due to its own weight more than necessary in the opening direction. Thus, when a large number of housings 1 are delivered or packed while they are piled up vertically, the elastic securing members 3 are greatly projected laterally from the side surfaces of the large number of vertically piled-up housings 1, which results in the worsened efficiency of the delivering or packing operation.
The present invention aims at eliminating the drawbacks found in the above-mentioned conventional cover member securing structure. Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a cover member securing structure in which an elastic securing member shiftably supported on the side surface of a housing can be provisionally positioned at an arbitrary inclination position, so that not only when mounting the cover member onto the housing, the elastic securing member can be prevented from being sandwiched between the housing to thereby be able to enhance the efficiency of the operation to mount the cover member onto the housing, but also when delivering a large number of housings in such a manner that they are piled up vertically, the quantities of projection (lengths) of the respective elastic securing members, which project from the side surfaces of the housings, can be restricted to thereby being able to facilitate the delivering operation of the housings.
In attaining the above object, according to the invention, there is provided a cover member securing structure, comprising: a housing; a cover member to be mounted on the housing; and, an elastic securing member formed of a band-shaped plate spring so as to have a substantially C-shaped side surface, one end of elastic securing member being shiftably supported on one of the housing and cover member, the other end of the elastic securing member being removably secured to the other of the housing and cover member, wherein a pair of hold pieces for elastically holding between them the two side edges of the elastic securing member to thereby be able to position the shifting inclination position of the elastic securing member provisionally at an arbitrary position are disposed in one of the housing and cover member supporting the elastic securing member.